No life on Mars? Aw, heck

In 1996, scientists thrillingly theorized that a potato-size meteorite from Mars, discovered in Antarctica, could contain evidence that life had once existed on the Red Planet. Life on Mars!

That pronouncement provoked a burst of exuberance at NASA and ... a volley of skepticism from outside scientists.

One way to approach the question: Send a probe to Mars and sniff around for methane and other elements that could indicate life could still exist there or had once existed. Enter Curiosity, the Mars probe that nailed its landing on the planet’s surface in August 2012.

Since then, Curiosity, the most advanced machine ever dispatched to another planet, has been trundling across the Martian surface with its laser, drill and soil scooper, carefully seeking signs to answer a key question: Did Mars ever have an environment that could support life as we understand it? The rover did find traces of water in soil that it spent weeks analyzing. And it turned up a volcanic rock that suggests Mars is a lot more geologically similar to Earth than previously thought.

But on the tantalizing question of life on Mars right now, we’re sorry to say that Curiosity has come up empty on the methane hunt. So far, the Red Planet is more like the Dead Planet. There are no strong signs that microscopic life, or any other kind, thrives on Mars.

Disappointing? Sure. But Curiosity’s chief scientist, John Grotzinger, tells us the rover’s mission has been a success: “We’re excited that all of our science instruments worked. All things being equal, sure it would be nice to find lots of methane on Mars. But that’s what you get.”

Curiosity has kindled a new Mars fever. The exploration is far from over. Maybe there’s no life on Mars now. But one day, we imagine there will be. Human life.

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